Following today’s European announcement this morning, Namco Bandai
has confirmed Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Wizard’s Edition
for North America. It’s a limited-run that can only be ordered through
the company’s online store.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow producer David Cox wishes that his team hadn’t made any downloadable content for the game. Both packs – “Reverie” and “Resurrection” – were a critical and financial flop.

In a recent interview, Cox said that the element of “surprise” led to the poorly-planned DLC.

“The problem was that the game’s success caught everyone by surprise. It caught senior management by surprise and they wanted us to do DLC. We never planned to do DLC, so we ended up doing DLC after the fact and in hindsight that was a mistake. It was rushed. We had to rush it to market.”

Cox is pleased with the DLC in that respect that the story was “enriched”, though he would have liked some lead-time and the opportunity to plan things from the beginning.

“I think we enriched the story that we wanted to tell, but I think if we were going to do DLC again it would have to be planned right from the get go. And it wouldn’t be something that would try to build upon an ending—it would be something that’s perhaps a side story that enriches the original story. If we were going to do DLC again it would be something much more carefully considered.”

The Lords of Shadow team wasn’t actually forced into making any DLC. However, Cox felt that the game’s initial success put pressure on the developers to bring something new out as soon as possible.

“When you have success there’s pressure on you to bring something else to market very quickly. And I think it was wrong of us to do that.”

Cox also shared his thoughts about DLC overall.

“I’m not a big fan of most modern day DLC. I think if DLC is going to be done it has to compliment the main game—not be a continuation of the main story but more of a side story. It should add to the experience, not take away from it.”

And finally, how does Cox feel about how DLC is being treated today?

“Well, there’s a market for it—but I think people want to get value for their money so I think that in that respect you need to give them an expansion of the universe you’ve created. Like what they’ve done with Skyrim. Instead of giving players a part of the story and giving them the other part as DLC, I think the DLC has to expand the universe of an already whole product.”

Brand new artwork and screenshots from Ys: Foliage Ocean in Celceta or Ys: Celceta Sea of Trees as its known in Japan. Ys Celceta Sea of Trees, the PS Vita remake of Ys IV will release in Japan on September 27th for 7,140 yen.

Square Enix’s Motomu Toriyama was on hand for the Taipei Game Developers Conference this week. Toriyama opened up on the development of the most recent Final Fantasy title, XIII-2.

In the early days of development – the concept phases, more specifically – Square Enix referred to the project as “Final Fantasy XIII Season 2.” Along with that tiny revelation, Toriyama discussed XIII-2′s downloadable content. This was something that the team decided to implement early on, and as some of you may know, is the first time a game in the franchise saw such extensive DLC. According to Toriyama, DLC could end up as a required feature for future releases.

Namco Bandai has released official images of its Tales of Xillia 2 DualShock 3 edition and pre-order items. Pre-order the game in Japan and you’ll receive “Tales of Xillia 2 Before Episode,” a short story detailing the year between the first and second games. You’ll also get an Emil Castagnier costume for Ludger, as well as two other.

The DualShock 3 Tales of Xillia 2 Edition includes an Xillia DS3 controller and a copy of the game for 12,980 yen.

In North America and Europe, Okami HD is getting a digital release. Japan, however, will receive a full boxed version. Some folks would have preferred a retail copy over a download through PSN. Why was this decision made? Capcom’s Christian Svensson took to the company’s official message boards and explained:

“It has less to do with Western gamers not being good enough and more to do with the Japanese market not being download saavy enough.

“Secondly, we don’t believe US retailers will be terribly supportive of such a product so the inventory risk would be high. Digital is the smarter play.”

The reasoning does make sense, but it’d be fantastic if Capcom were to offer the game through its own online store or something similar.

Nintendo has gone into detail as to what has changed between the original 3DS and the 3DS XL.

There have been some reports through initial hands-on that the 3D effect has improved. While that could be possible, it’s likely related to the larger screen size. Nintendo says that the screens are made of the same materials as the original 3DS. Continuing on with the screen theme, IGN reports that the 3DS XL hasn’t been adjusted to accommodate the 90% display increase.

The 3DS XL’s sound speaker design has changed, but it isn’t related to improved technology. A Nintendo spokesperson said that “the speaker function of the XL is the same quality level as the 3DS’s.” Aside from the Circle Pad, XL features input adjustments. The d-pad as well as the shoulder and face buttons are now “slightly bigger than the 3DS buttons.”

Valve fan site ValveTime.net claims to have gotten a hold of Half-Life 2: Episode 3
concept artwork illustrated from 2008. The site says the artwork is
official, and that it wouldn’t post anything “unless it was 100%
confirmed.”

The artwork is rumored to be drawn by Andrea Wicklund. She has worked at Valve since 2006.